Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

New Screens Show Off The Present Day World

Yesterday, Ubisoft let Assassin's Creed lead writer Darby McDevitt loose on Twitter to answer questions about the modern Abstergo's role in Black Flag, and reveal some new screens.

Ubisoft summed up the Q and A session on its blog, which you can check out here. There are no flat-out, "Here's what happened in the end of Assassin's Creed III!" spoilers, but there is enough there to merit a warning if you haven't gotten around to finishing Connor's adventure, yet.

McDevitt said on Twitter that cluster and glyph puzzles have been replaced by hacking games. There will be a "handful" of present day missions taking place in Montreal, Quebec. They will will involve exploring, sneaking, eavesdropping, and hacking, but no combat. Clay A.K.A. Subject 16 will not be returning, but McDevitt teased something related to Subject 17.

When asked about Desmond and his connection to the main character of Black Flag, McDevitt replied, "You are the main character. Do you have any Miles’s in your family tree?"

The full posting contains more information, so be sure to check it out as long as you've completed Assassin's Creed III.

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is coming to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii U on October 29, with PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One versions set for some time this year.

Never really saw the point of the present day missions in the Assassins Creed series. At first it seemed like they had some sort of purpose. Each game lead you closer to some hidden truth. But, the whole 2012 apocalypse thing just completely destroyed it for me. It was clear to me that they were just winging the story in order to keep them connected. Of course, this is all my opinion. Don't want any hardcore AC fans bashing me for this.

ah. Modern Day Assassin's Creed. I seem to be one of the few who loved that aspect of the game. As much as I loved the historical setting and Assassin's gameplay, it was the modern day story that kept me coming back year after year. And what did I, and other fans of the modern story get? Something that I consider to be one of the worst endings I've had the displeasure of witnessing. The payoff was weak. All the buildup was for nothing. and with one touch of a shiny ball, I was subjected to the most anti-climatic ending to a quest spanning five games (FIVE GAMES!!!!!!!!!!) that there will probably ever be.

So excuse me if I have little to no interest in your plans for the modern day portion of the series at this point. After years of defending the modern day portions from those who felt it detracted from the overall experience, I now find it hard to disagree with them.

While I'm not as excited for this game as AC3, which is still my favorite of the series, it's shaping to look much better than I thought. While the modern day stuff wasn't too amazing, it still added some life to Desmond that we had never seen, and that pleased me. I'll be sure to check out the entirety of Abstergo Headquarters for.... "research".

"YOU" are the protagonist? In other words, the are not making the modern day protagonist a real character? I don't know about that decision, it seems odd given the fact that the over arching plot of the Assassins Creed series was all about the modern day protagonist and his journey.